Page 74 of Spies Like Us

When I catch up to Miller, he’s standing out front of Max’s history classroom, the two of them deep in conversation. I join them.

“What did Stella want?” Max asks, and I grimace.

“Just to tell me she knows what I did on Friday night. Don’t worry about it, I handled it,” I tell him. He can deal with it later if she decides to bring it up with him.

My little gift to him, which I will have a giggle about later.

“What was wrong with Lathan?” I ask, and Miller shows me his messages.

Lathan: Auction has gone online. Countdown clock puts it for Friday evening. There are now ten captives in the cells, and each of them are on the website with a couple of remaining spaces saying, “Coming soon.”

“Well, okay, we can finally wrap this up. Is it an in-person auction?” I ask, and Miller shakes his head.

“No, all bids are done anonymously. We will have to let it happen and then intercept the delivery. It should be easy enough. We’ll just watch all the entrances. Your dad will send a few more agents to help if we need it.”

“Yeah, okay, good. I just have to get through Wednesday night, and I’ll be back first thing Thursday. Can you guys coordinate with Dad? We will want some agents stationed at the shipping yard as well in case they get past us.”

“Yeah, that won’t be a problem. I think it won’t hurt to have them here sooner rather than later. There aren’t enough of us to put a tail on each of the key players, and that’s what we need now,” Max says, and I agree with his assessment. He’s right. For now, the seven of us have to keep our covers, so having a few extra agents in town is smart. The last thing we want to do is allow any of them to slip through our fingers.

“After Friday night, I’m beginning to suspect the sex club and the auctions are two separate entities. Were there any records in the sex club of previous auctions and where the trafficked teenagers may be?”

“No, but we didn’t get a lot of time to look over them,” Max answers.

“But Lathan said all of the USBs were named. Would they have known the names of the trafficked teens or even cared about them? I doubt they would have taken the time to learn them,” I point out, but Miller shakes his head.

“We do know a few of them, the kids who used to live at Serenity house. If we can get back into the club, then we can at least search for their names amongst the USBs. That will give us a definite yay or nay to there being any record of them.”

“One of us will go tonight,” Max agrees. “If there aren’t any, then we are going to have to search the houses of the people involved and hope we can find something between now and the night of the auction. All of this will be a waste if we don’t find out where all the other victims have gone.”

“Agreed. Miller and I will search Serenity House. I’m sure we’ll get a chance to over the next couple of days.” I smirk and arch an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to have problems getting into Ted and June’s house now. I bet by this afternoon, Stella will relinquish her purity ring and will be ready to bang your brains out. You’re welcome,” I tell him, patting him on the arm. He frowns with confusion, and I turn and walk into the classroom, leaving him wondering exactly what I meant.

We’re all on edge the following day, and it doesn’t get any better. They discover that there are no records of any sold teenagers in the club, it’s all blackmail material on the members, so they plan on doing a little breaking and entering while I’m gone.

On Wednesday morning, I get up early. I pack my bag with a change of clothes and meet Martha downstairs. She drives me to the small, private airport just outside of Summerville. It’s basically deserted when I arrive, but there is a small private jet, with MITHOS College written on the side, waiting.

I climb out, and Martha rolls down the window. “Have fun, and be safe. I’m certain this is just a small step on the path to the rest of your life,” she tells me and waves goodbye before driving away. I look around. There’s a small hangar about a hundred meters from where the plane is parked, but there is no one around. It’s actually slightly creepy, and I feel like I’m being watched, so I quickly hurry up the stairs of the plane.

“Ms. Watson, nice of you to join us today.” My dad’s personal pilot is waiting with a grin on his face.

“Hey Brenton, good to see you.” I give him a hug, and he steps back and looks at me. Brenton is older, probably in his forties, and he’s been Dad’s pilot for at least ten years. I’ve flown with him often.

“That’s certainly a different look than what I’m used to.” He chuckles as he takes in my new outfit, which Martha supervised me while buying on Sunday after church. I was kind of hoping she had forgotten, but she hadn’t. I’m wearing a pastel green pencil skirt, with a matching top and a white cardigan over it. I have white heels on as well, and my black hair is tied back in a bun at the nape of my neck.

“Yeah, isn’t it adorable?” I say sarcastically as I step around him, allowing him to pull the cabin door closed.

“Holy fuck, who went and made you a Stepford wife?” The voice behind me has me smiling and striking a pose.

“You like?” I ask my cousin Katie. She’s reclined in one of the chairs, wide-eyed with shock.

She lifts her phone and snaps a shot before her fingers fly across the screen. “I’m sending that to Keely and JB. They’ll think it’s hilarious. Oh, and our parents and granddad and King Yusaf… They won’t believe their eyes.”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.” I throw myself into a chair and strap in, placing my backpack off to the side. I feel the plane start to taxi back to the runway. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here,” I tell her as the plane speeds up before lifting into the air. My stomach lurches, and my ears pop, but I swallow a couple of times, and it doesn’t take long for it to equalize.

“Yeah, I know, but I didn’t trust anyone else to bring you an outfit and all the necessities.” She smiles, pointing at a pile of things sitting on one of the other sumptuous chairs.

“Awesome. Once the plane reaches cruising altitude, I’ll get changed.”

“There’s an outfit in there for lunch. We’re meeting with the crew before going to the opening tonight.” I groan, wrinkling my nose, and she grimaces. “I know, but you know how it helps sell our covers. We also have a room at the Plaza for the night so we can get changed for the gala there.”

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